There is a middle way. If you want a HTML control but you need to access it server side you can simply add the runat="server" attribute:
<a runat="server" Id="lnkBack">Back</a>
You can then alter the href server side using Attributes
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
lnkBack.Attributes.Add("href", url);
}
}
resulting in:
<a id="ctl00_ctl00_mainContentPlaceHolder_contentPlaceHolder_lnkBack"
href="url.aspx">Back</a>